CHAPTER 5: PRESENTATION & INTERPRETATION OF EMPIRICAL RESULTS
5.6 Frequencies of factors that influence CBBE
5.6.1 Perceived Quality
68 for Uniqueness (in that order) have an effect on consumers’ perceptions with regards to the brand equity of luxury car brands.
69 Table 5.10: Perceived Quality - Frequencies and Computation of Principal
Component
Perceived Brand Quality (PBQ)
Frequency Distribution Principal component
Strongly Disa
gree Disagree Neutral Agree
Strongly Agr
ee % Agree or
Strongly Agr
ee Coeff Reliability
Q2:The quality of the brand is extremely high
Freq 1 0 2 66 187 98.83% 0.718
% of Total variation =59.162%, Chronbachs Alpha=0.822
% 0.39% 0.00% 0.78% 25.78% 73.05%
Q3:The reliability of the brand is very high
Freq 0 0 9 89 158 96.48% 0.798
% 0.00% 0.00% 3.52% 34.77% 61.72%
Q4:The brand is consistent in the quality it offers
Freq 0 0 8 77 171 96.88% 0.810
% 0.00% 0.00% 3.13% 30.08% 66.80%
Q5:The performance of the brand is very high
Freq 0 0 9 79 168 96.48% 0.792
% 0.00% 0.00% 3.52% 30.86% 65.63%
Q6:The durability of the brand is very high
Freq 0 2 20 94 140 91.41% 0.722
% 0.00% 0.78% 7.81% 36.72% 54.69%
Overall perceived brand quality (PBQ) is calculated from the five questionnaire items as:
PBQ=0.718×Q2 + 0.798×Q3 + 0.810×Q4 + 0.792×Q5 + 0.722×Q6
This overall measure of perceived brand quality will be used further on, together with the overall score for other brand equity constructs, in establishing if any significant correlations exist between these constructs. All the other overall measures of the constructs that follow were also calculated from the principal components that appear in the relevant summary tables (Tables 5.11 - 5.21).
70 5.6.1.2 Perceived quality sub-constructs: Distribution by car brand
Based on the finding that almost all respondents rated the perceived quality of their identified valuable brand positively the researcher found it to be more informative to analyse how consumers with different brand choices rated the quality of their chosen brands in relation to each sub-construct of the ‘perceived quality’ variable. The results in Table 5.11 summarise how different brands faired on the perceived quality scale.
Because very few people selected the categories of Strongly Disagree, Disagree and Neutral, these three were combined in order to carry out valid Chi-square tests.
Table 5.11: Perceived brand quality for the different luxury car brands (Chi- square Test Results)
Car Brand
Q2:The quality of the brand is extremely
high
Q3:The reliability of the brand is very high
Q4:The brand is consistent in the quality it offers
Q5:The performance of the brand is very
high
Q6:The durability of the brand is very
high
(Strongly)Dis agree/Neutral Agree Strongly Agree (Strongly)Dis agree/Neutral Agree Strongly Agree (Strongly)Dis agree/Neutral Agree Strongly Agree (Strongly)Dis agree/Neutral Agree Strongly Agree (Strongly)Dis agree/Neutral Agree Strongly Agree
Mercedes 0 22 69 1 28 62 3 23 65 0 31 60 3 34 54
BMW 3 19 47 5 26 38 3 24 42 2 22 45 6 32 31
Audi 0 8 24 0 14 18 0 11 21 1 13 18 4 12 16
Others 0 17 46 3 21 39 2 19 42 6 13 44 9 16 38
Total 3 66 186 9 89 157 8 77 170 9 79 167 22 94 139
Chi-Square Tests Chi-Square Tests Chi-Square Tests Chi-Square Tests Chi-Square Tests
Statistic df Exact p-value Statistic df Exact p-value Statistic df Exact p-value Statistic df Exact p-value Statistic df Exact p-value
Pearson
Chi-Square 8.644 6 0.190 8.243 6 0.217 3.392 6 0.774 13.756 6 0.030 11.90 6 0.063 Fisher's
Exact
Test 5.454 - 0.429 7.436 - 0.253 3.192 - 0.791 13.004 - 0.025 12.47 - 0.060
The most common quality brands were Mercedes, BMW and Audi. There were few of the other brands and for the sake of comparisons, the remainder of the brands, other than the three above, were combined for the sake of this analysis. BMW has nonzero frequencies in the negative comments category (Strongly Disagree, Disagree and Neutral) for all 5 questions, with 3 individuals indicating that they did not agree or
71 strongly agree that the quality of the brand is extremely high. As for the reliability of the brand being very high (question 3), 5 people did not agree what statement in relation BMW has got what it takes, and as for brand consistency in the quality it offers (question 4) 3 people were not convinced with BMW. As far as the performance of the brand (question 5) is concerned two people were not convinced and 6 people did not agree that the BMW brand has high durability (question 6).
On the other hand, the Audi brand had only two aspects of perceived quality which got some negative (disagree or strongly disagree) or reserved (neutral) sentiments from consumers. Only one and four participants indicated that the performance (question 4) and the durability of the brand (question 5), respectively, is not high. The Mercedes Benz brand also had very few negative sentiments despite the fact that it was the most represented brand in the study (see Table 4.2: Mercedes=35.7%).
To test for the relationship between brand and perceived brand quality, Chi-square tests were used with particular emphasis on the Fisher’s exact test since some of the frequencies were below 5. The Chi-square tests indicate that there is no significant association between brand and perceived quality (question 2: Fisher’s exact test statistic
=5.454, p-value =0.429). There is no significant association between brand and perceived reliability (question 3: Fisher’s exact test statistic =7.436, p-value =0.253).
There is no significant association between brand and perceived brand quality consistency (question 4: Fisher’s exact test statistic =3.192, p-value =0.791). There is significant association between brand and perceived brand performance (question 5:
Fisher’s exact test statistic =13.004, p-value =0.025), this means that while the other measures of quality do not differ significantly across various brands, performance seems to significantly differ across the brands. There is no significant association between brand and perceived brand durability (question 5: Fisher’s exact test statistic
=12.474, p-value =0.060). However, a p-value of 0.060 if almost significant as it is very close to 0.050.
Put succinctly, consumers are of the view that the brands that have value are those brands that they perceive as having high brand quality in terms of performance, with a few reservations.
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